In general, there is often the impression that educational services and schools are not a real priority in the political agenda and that, in particular, the needs of the little ones are not adequately taken into account
On October 5, on the initiative of the United Nations, the World teachers dayestablished to remember a measure that has emphasized the importance of the role of these educators, who accompany children and teenagers in their training courseor the signing of “UNESCO recommendations on teacher status“.
Holding the role of the teacher (the writer knows from experience) is one great responsibility And it needs a considerable ability to adapt to sometimes unpredictable situations, as the Pandemic years have contributed to highlighting. Certainly also the management of these emergency situations could have been more functional if it had been thought of in time to Effective interventions on the entire school systemof which teachers are an important part, but certainly not the only one.
Important educational spaces
Girls and boys have deeply need schools where they can receive one Quality trainingrespectful of the different needs and specific characteristics of each of them. It is important to underline how this should not be worth only for compulsory schools and for already Granichelli children, given the importance that the training spaces intended for the first years of life are also held in the formation of the individual, that is Nurses and kindergartens.
How pedagogy has highlighted, with the comfort of the data from the research, which are increasingly accumulating, also the contribution of the structured educational activities That girls and boys undertake in nests has great importance as a stimulus to their development, which at that age has sensory experiences as its important vehicle.
Next to this aspect, just to make some examples, we remember the great contribution given by the possibility of sharing experiences and spaces with other children, developing social skills and soliciting the linguistic ability for the need to communicate with friends. But activities and group game are also an important vehicle for prosocial skills, that is, the ability to act for the benefit of others developing empathy towards them; It is an aspect whose importance of development psychology and pedagogy have been talking to us for some time.
Alongside this important function that concerns the little ones more directly, we particularly remember that specific studies have also identified, especially in childhood nests, a tool to encourage thesocial equality and reduce poverty (1).
Precisely for this reason, in 2002, the European Council of Barcelona had established, as its objective to be achieved by 2010 throughout the European Union territory, a percentage of places in the nests equal to 33% of the potentially interested populationa value from which Italy still remains distant, with areas (the most economically developed and in the largest municipalities) very close to the objective and others (smaller areas, peripheral and characterized by economic hardship) dramatically distant. A situation of this type has the power to cancel the social value of this important educational institution.
The problem is further aggravated by question of feeswhich often represent a considerable weight for families, already put in great difficulty by the economic crisis in progress and the increases in many sectors. The so -called “nursery bonus“They are certainly an important help, although they can certainly not be decisive especially in the areas where places in the nests are clearly lower than the population needs.
Missing teachers and risk of closure for the increases
In general, there is often the impression that educational services and schools are not a real priority in the political agenda And that, in particular, the needs of the little ones are not adequately taken into account.
In the months preceding the start of didactic activities, the slogan “We will begin the school year without personnel deficiencies and with all the teachers in the chair“It is repeated as if it were a mantra, as it reassures itself on the execution of the necessary interventions to guarantee The safety and stability of buildings (2), to which measures should also be added to guarantee its hygiene, whose importance was realized during the pandemic emergency, as well as interventions of energy efficiency. But at the start of each school year, the situation described by the facts and complained by the trade unions appears deeply differentboth on the level of the safety of buildings and regarding the staff of the schools.
Estimates on the size of the deficiency of teachers they are not yet official, but the calculations made to start the school year have reported numbers ranging from 150 to 200 thousand missing teachers (3). The main cause is the slownessthe cumbersomeness and the typical disorganization of the competition procedures. Although the one for primary school and kindergarten is now practically concluded, a large percentage of places still remains not assigned. To these inconveniences are added those connected with the always problematic management of the substitutes and, this year, also the cut of theCovid staffthat is, that staff who, during the health emergency, was called to support school activity, helping to remedy some of the many gaps in the school system.
These days is also the report of the alarm launched by a federation that represents equal nursery schools (4), which reports great difficulties related to‘increase in bills and other expenseswhich had led to an amendment request in the Bis support decree, which remained unheard. According to the managers of the Federation, this puts many schools a closing risk by January (the alternative would be further burned the increase in costs on families).
Can PNRR be resolved the situation?
In a widely complicated situation, which involves all schools, state and equal, throughout the national territory What can be expected from the share of the PNRR (the national recovery and resilience plan) intended for the school?
With the funds provided, it is expected to cover the costs relating to projects presented “from the bottom”, that is, by local authorities. Among these, for example, there was talk of the construction of nursery schools, to make up for the serious deficiencies we were talking about. At present, however, the fact that the requests for funds have been scarce in the areas where the need for places appears more stringent and, in general, lower than expected throughout the national territory, makes you think, as the press reports and as some analyzes have highlighted, that the local authorities have been discouraged from the perspective of not to be able to cover the costs connected to the new structures.
In other areas it would also seem more rational recover and make already efficient structures already existing Rather than building new ones, an aspect that falls within the more general one of the poor reflection on the specific needs of each area. The picture is added to the picture lack of specialized personnel in the management of this type of project, which afflicts several local authorities.
While these organizational and bureaucratic hitches continue to present themselves, girls and boys still continue to be damaged in their fundamental right: to have quality formation.
